I was very disappointed to hear the horrible news on Monday that in a 3-2 vote, a Senate panel in Chile had agreed to move legislation forward to legalize abortion “in three causes” — if a woman says her preborn child was conceived in rape, if a doctor says a preborn child has a “fatal fetal impairment” or if a doctor says the mother will die without an abortion. All three of these are based on allegations which may or may not be true, but all three also discriminate against the most vulnerable members of society — the ones who deserve the most protection. Next week, the full Senate will vote on whether innocent children deserve to die based on these allegations, and if approved, it will go to pro-abortion President Michelle Bachelet for signature, and Chile will see an explosion of innocent blood being shed on its land.
I’ve previously written regarding this pending legislation in Chile, and now I’d like to add more to this discussion. I’m the President of Save The 1 – a global pro-life organization of over 450 who were conceived in rape (like me) and mothers who became pregnant by rape who are either raising their children, birthmothers, or post-abortive and regret aborting. Additionally, we have hundreds who were told to abort due to a challenging pre-natal diagnosis. We value life and urge the Chilean Senate to continue to protect all human life, without discrimination.
Our Spanish division is Salvar El 1 — the 1% who are targeted by such legislation, who allegedly only represent 1% of all abortions in the U.S. and globally. We defend the so-called “hard cases” in the abortion debate. We now have over 24,000 followers on our Salvar El 1 Facebook page. Since the news broke that President Bachelet was seeking to legalize abortion in Chile, we have had several citizens of Chile come forward to share their difficult stories with us. They were encouraged by my story, and the hundreds of other stories of beautiful people from our organization. Many voices are being heard in Chile, but most importantly, the voices of the innocent must be heard, and these bold Chileans are speaking on behalf of those who are being targeted who are yet at risk!
Like me, Karina Silva from Santiago, Chile, was conceived in rape, but protected by law. Her mom was 15 when she was raped, and Karina was born in 1989 — the same year Chile abolished abortion. But people like Michelle Bachelet think Karina did not deserve the protection she received under Chilean law. President Bachelet and others are not proposing to legalize the death penalty for rapists, but this is precisely what they are proposing for innocent Chilean children like Karina!
Karina says, “I love living! And I appreciate every second that I have. Perhaps to society my life was written for a failure, but it was not! The solution is not the approval of abortion in Chile — the solution is to form support networks in our country for these cases.”
On the other hand, Monica — also from Chile — became pregnant as a result of rape and was determined to kill her baby, until she reached out to her oldest daughter who said, “Mom, how are you going to kill that baby you carry in your womb?! That baby is as much a victim as you are! She did not ask to come into the world. You always dreamed of having three children and, anyway, this will be your third child. Did you forget everything you suffered in miscarrying your child and now you want to kill this baby who is a victim just like you?”
In her story written for our blog, Monica wrote: “Those words touched me to the depths of my being. She was right — that baby was a victim of my rapist. Now I see my daughter who is 4 years and 8 months old, and I ask forgiveness for ever thinking of aborting her! But such is the pressure, when you ask those who are supposed to help. You doubt your own ability to love. But if it were not for my older daughter who is now 24 years old, my 4 year old would not exist today. You can survive with a child of the most aberrant act that is the worst violation – a rape. Always find angels in your life who give you support – those who do not offer you “solutions” which are even more problematic. My child is a blessing – MY blessing! I will ask forgiveness to the last day of my life merely because I even thought for a moment about aborting my daughter.”
Then there is Diana Valeria from Chile, who became pregnant by rape in 2008 at 15 years
old, who says her baby helped her to overcome fear. She wrote: “I was afraid because I did not want to be a mother. I cried and suffered a lot, but I knew that there was someone else who was living within me and it was not my right to do anything but protect my baby.” Ultimately, she miscarried after three months. Diana regrettably remembers people saying to her, “Now you will not have to see the memory of the rapist.” But inside, she felt this child was her own, not the rapist’s.
Even knowing that her child had been conceived in violence, Diana felt strongly that the origin of her baby’s conception does not define the love she feels for her child. Still today, over the years, she says she has not forgotten an angel who spread her wings.
Gustavo Armijo Griñen from Chile also wrote out his family’s story for us. At 20 weeks gestation, they had the first ultrasound where they learned they were having a son, but they were also told that their son had “holoprosencephaly.” At a second opinion in Santiago, Chile where they got a 3D ultrasound, the diagnosis was “Acrania” (their son was missing part of his encephalic mass,) and it was recommended that they abort their child if Chile legalizes abortion for this case, or leave Chile to abort.
He wrote: “The following months were very hard, but also the best. As the weeks passed, we sang to him, we talked to him, we went to the beach, the countryside, birthday parties, and to many family gatherings. We took thousands of photos, and gave many kisses on the belly and never got tired of saying that we LOVED him. He was the most beautiful thing God could send us.
Baby Alonso was born two weeks early on December 23, 2015 — . “My little one was with us one hour and two minutes. Then he went to heaven because God needed a fighter angel. It’s been 4 months now since our son’s death. We are happy because we gave the best in our hands for him to be happy while growing in the womb and in the short hour he was with us.”
In regards to a diagnosis of “incompatible with life” – it is impossible to be such when you are still living. Physicians who peddle abortion are truly the ones with fatal heart defects, often failing to treat the children of parents who refused to abort. A eugenics mentality becomes pervasive when you allow abortion.
Pro-Life speaker and blogger Brad Smith from Save The 1 had this to say: “In the USA, we
have allowed this perverse and demented view of life to take hold in our country through legalized abortion. We have created a culture of death that causes many in our society to think of life as having little value and they are willing to judge the worth of another person’s life based upon their valueless view. So now in the United States, doctors kill over 90% of children like my daughter Faith who have a disability. Before they can even breathe their first breath, doctors murder our disabled children in the womb. The world has become a very scary place for disabled children. Good people of Chile, do not let your president turn your country into a killing field for disabled children. Don’t allow yourselves to be deceived that this is the best choice for everyone involved. This is a LIE. Your country will not be made better through abortion; rather, it will become degraded and dehumanized. Your people will not have better lives because disabled children do not exist; they will simply have been deprived of the opportunity to develop compassion and to know the unconditional love of a disabled child who has only love to offer.”
Read in Spanish here: http://salvarel1.blogspot.com/2017/01/chilenos-que-representan-las-3-causales.html
wife and mother of 5 – two adopted and three biological children, as well as another adopted child born with special needs who died in her arms at 33 days old. She’s the founder and President of Save The 1, co-founder of Hope After Rape Conception, co-founder of Embryo Defense, and on the Executive Committee of Personhood Alliance.
